Two phones that have been teased around the web for a while now are finally getting official release-statements: Verizon's HTC Thunderbolt and Sprint's Kyocera Echo. The former is going to be the first smartphone on Verizon's 4G LTE network, and will be available March 17 (just two more days!). Meanwhile, the latter smartphone will be out on April 17th (just two more days! ...oh, and a month on top of that).

What's so special about these two, you ask?

As mentioned previously, the Thunderbolt is the first 4G smartphone using Verizon's LTE network, which should provide faster download/upload speeds. The Thunderbolt will come with a 4.3" display, an 8-megapixel rear camera with 720p HD recording, a 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera for video chatting, and the latest 1GHz Snapdragon processor.

This, of course, should be a power-hog, so expect to charge your battery quite a bit. The Thunderbolt has already been delayed several times due to poor battery life, relating to issues around signal strength. These issues have been fixed, and there's even news circulating of an extended battery being offered by HTC, which will have roughly 2750mAh (almost double the phone's stock battery of 1400mAh). The phone-stand also comes back, just for your viewing pleasure.

Meanwhile, on Sprint's end, we'll be seeing the Kyocera Echo, a dual-screen smartphone that offers "simul-tasking". Consumers can use the two screens to simultaneously check their email, text message, browse the web, and more. During the Sprint event in February, they showed how the dual-screen phone could be used for gaming: The Sims was demo'ed with the top screen showing the game, and the bottom screen showing the control buttons. Alternatively, you could also converge both screens together (not physically, of course!) to use them as one large viewing apparatus. Nifty, indeed.